Theater: Contemporary take on 'Othello' aims to capture Shakespeare's spirit

Jody Feinberg The Patriot Ledger

Wednesday

Jan 9, 2019 at 3:47 PMJan 10, 2019 at 5:23 PM

Shakespeare may be timeless, but some plays have more relevance today than others. That’s the case with “Othello,” which comes to the American Repertory Theater from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

“I think `Othello' is his most contemporary play,” said Oregon Shakespeare Festival artistic director Bill Rauch, whose production opens in previews Jan. 13. “It feels like it was written about this particular moment in the 21st century. The connections between then and now are breathtaking.”

Rauch, who has won Tony, Drama Desk and Elliot Norton awards, said the play is not just insightful about human psychology, but about how racism, misogyny and xenophobia influence individuals.

“Society created the environment in which Othello can be brought down,” he said. “If you take out the social constructs, the story doesn’t happen. And that’s what makes the play so stunningly relevant.”

Othello, referred to as the Moor, is an outsider in Venetian society – a black immigrant and Christian convert who has earned great respect for his military prowess and character despite his foreignness. The prejudice against him initially can be seen when he loses the favor of the father of his beloved, Desdemona, who can’t accept him as a son-in-law.

“The bias seems to flare up out of the blue and we can immediately recognize patterns across time and culture in how people deal with one another,” said Rauch, who set the 400-year-old story on a contemporary United States Navy base on the island of Cyprus.

Iago, a military officer who served under Othello, resents the success of his commander, especially when Othello bypasses him for a promotion and gives it to a less senior officer, Cassio. To wreak his revenge, Iago turns Othello against Desdemona by telling him lies that distort reality and destroy trust, a device prevalent today.

Iago insinuates for the first time that Desdemona may be unfaithful while he and Othello are working out at the gym. That seemingly off-hand remark sets in motion the tragedy that ends with Othello killing her and later committing suicide after he realizes Iago has deceived him and his wife is innocent.

“The suggestion gets dropped in the most casual way and that makes it even more insidious when it tears apart Othello’s life,” Rauch said. “It’s the most pivotal scene between them. Iago eventually resorts to very explicit lies, but he starts with just the mere suggestion of altered reality. The play brilliantly portrays how innuendos create doubt and fear and polarization.”

Similarly relevant is the role of misogyny in the domestic violence that kills two wives. Othello strangles Desdemona in her bed to end what he believes is an affair, and Iago murders Emilia, after she exposes that he made Desdemona look guilty of adultery when he planted her handkerchief with Cassio.

“The building blocks Iago used to create doubt are rooted in misogyny and male fears and distrust of women,” Rauch said. “What’s so troubling is that Othello goes from someone who is completely confident and has a pure and healthy love for his wife to this insane, extreme jealousy.”

To highlight the intimacy of the tragedy, Rauch cast the play with only 12 performers, eight of whom are people of color from a variety of ethnicities that reflect the theater company’s resident actors. In other productions, the cast typically has nearly two dozen people and Othello is the only person of color.

Shakespeare also wrote about the devastating consequences of hatred and distrust based on identity in “Romeo and Juliet,” but “Othello” ends without the hopefulness of that earlier play, whose warring families resolved to get beyond their differences.

“In `Othello,' the response is ‘Let’s cover up the ugliness and torture Iago to make him pay for what he’s done,” said Rauch, who this year will become artistic director of The Ronald O. Perelman Center for the Performing Arts at the World Trade Center.

Although the happenings in “Othello” are horrible, Rauch said it entertains and even has moments of humor.

“I try to make the characters and the language come to life and to change the mind of people who say ‘Oh, I don’t understand Shakespeare,'” Rauch said. “I try to tell a very gripping story.”

And despite the play’s grim conclusion, Rauch said he sees hope.

“It shows us what is eternal in human nature and societal constructs,” he said. “We can see what has changed that can give us hope and how we can avert the kinds of tragedies Shakespeare lays out with our choices.”

Reach Jody Feinberg at jfeinberg@patriotledger.com. Follow her on Twitter@JodyF_Ledger.